Blog Roll

David Gergen rails against 'criminalizing reporters'

Longtime White House aide David Gergen called Monday on journalists and the public to "push back" against the way in which the Obama Administration has allowed leak investigations to pry into journalists' work and even label them as criminals.

"When there are leaks, it’s entirely appropriate to go after who the leakers are, but to think that we might start criminalizing reporters for asking tough questions—as we’ve seen in this recent affidavit that was filed—that goes way beyond where the balance ought to be struck," Gergen said in impassioned remarks at the National Press Club. "This is an important moment that we review...what makes our society work, what goes into a democratic society that makes it vibrant and whole."

Speaking at a ceremony where the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation bestowed journalism awards, Gergen said it was a serious mistake for the Justice Department to describe Fox News reporter James Rosen as a "co-conspirator" for trying to encourage a State Department contractor to share classified information.

"There’s no question in my mind that we crossed a line when the FBI filed an affidavit and called this fellow Mr. Rosen a potential co-conspirator and a criminal co-conspirator as a reporter who was asking questions. And you cannot put the press in that situation," said Gergen. "That’s why it’s so important to push back and make sure we get on the right side of the line and not on the wrong side of the line."

Gergen, who worked in the Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton White Houses—and also served as editor-at-large of U.S. News & World Report—said he understood the temptation to lash out at and even lie to the press.

"I can tell you. I’ve been in government. I know what the temptation is to lie. I know how overwhelming that temptation is as someone who sometimes spoke to the press on behalf of the administration, I was lied to inside. The temptation is powerful but the fact that you know that there are people out there who are going to hold you accountable is what gets governments to tell the truth. And that is a good thing," the CNN political commentator and Harvard Kennedy School professor said.

"Of course, when you’re in government, there are times when you are angry about the leaks. Of course, some of these leaks endanger national security, but if you look at the balance between the need for the government to have secrecy versus the imperatives of the First Amendment and having a free society, that balance is often struck in the wrong place. And we are going through a period now where it appears to many of us that the balance has been struck in the wrong place. And we have to stand up and say wait a minute the press is important, we all live better off when we have a watchdog in the press," Gergen added.

Gergen also said he saw a connection between the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups and the aggressive tactics employed in leak probes.

"The government has become very powerful, but what we need to ask of our leaders is restraint. Restraint in the use of power. Restraint when we send our forces abroad, plunge into a war, and restraint in how we treat each other," he said. "It seems to me that what unites the IRS and the press issues is the sense of a lack of restraint. People inside government need to treat fellow citizens with a certain dignity and understanding this is a complex society and we have to be respectful of certain standards. It’s not just a question of what the laws are it’s a question of what the standards are."